One of THE most important decisions in planning your wedding is choosing your photographer. Think about it: after the music has stopped, the food is gone, your guests have departed, aside from your memories, what will you have? Hopefully, you will have some awesome photographs of all the details from your wedding day!

Here are some tips we thought would help you with your search in choosing your photographer.

• Check out the styles of wedding photography and decide what style you like best. Whether it is documentary or photojournalistic, traditional, contemporary or blended, what style appeals most to you? There is a wide range of descriptions for today’s wedding photography that describes a photographer’s style and approach. Do the research and look at as many wedding images as you can and decide what you like! Websites are a great place to start your search. You can get a good idea of the photographer’s style by the images on their website. • Once you have decided what you like, start e-mailing or calling photographers and ask about availability and pricing. This will let you know if the photographer you are interested in is available AND is within your price range. But do keep in mind, when looking at prices you may not be comparing apples to apples.

The old adage, “You get what you pay for” is usually true in wedding photography. There are only so many weekends in the year and the number of weddings a photographer can book is limited. Therefore, as a photographer comes into greater demand by developing his or her artistry and experience the price will certainly go up. The end result is that the best photographers are more expensive than others.

So, when planning your budget, if excellent photos are important to you, don’t scrimp in this area! Ten or twenty years from now, your photos will be there on your table to remind you of the details that might otherwise be forgotten.

• Schedule a consultation to meet the photographer. It is very important that you are comfortable with the photographer you choose to document your wedding day. Consider this, your photographer will be with you at least 6-8 hours on your wedding day so you have to be at ease and comfortable with your photographer. Personality is very important!

• A few questions you might ask are: Do I like this person? Would I choose to spend the day with this person in a close professional setting?
Will this person fit into the social environment of my wedding day? Will this person be unobtrusive in capturing the images on my wedding day?

• During your meeting with a prospective photographer, ask about their equipment and do they carry backup equipment. We always have at least three or four professional cameras and often times have fives cameras at a wedding. It is important that your photographer has cameras that are fast enough to capture an image in a split second!

• Ask for referrals. There is nothing any better than talking to a bride and groom about their photographer! Most photographers will be more than happy to give you referrals and in fact, we love it when we can share contact names with a potential bride and groom. Our clients are our best advertisers!

• View albums that the photographer has done and make sure the albums are from weddings they have photographed. You would be surprised at how many photographers show albums that are not from weddings they photographed! Pay close attention to the quality of the albums. If you are paying for a top of the line album it should look like a top of the line album.

• Ask about experience. How long has this person been photographing weddings? What is their background? What is it about photographing weddings that they like?

• Make sure the photographer you are interviewing will be the photographer photographing your wedding and not an associate photographer.

• Once you choose your photographer, make sure you sign a contract with them and that you have paid a retainer to secure your date and remember retainers are non-refundable.

• Get to know your photographer! Communicate during the planning process to let them know what you like. Obviously, if you have decided to hire a particular photographer you must like their style.

Often times couples we have had the awesome opportunity to document their wedding day will keep in touch long after their album is finished. We love it when we get a call or e-mail about a new addition to the family. Sometimes it is a fluffy little puppy and sometimes it is a sweet little “sweet pea” baby; then we get to photograph the couple with the new addition and get to know them too. It is so much fun building relationships, that’s what life is all about!